Oil and Gas Infrastructure Damage

Soon after the tornado touched ground, gas utilities giant CenterPoint Energy reported gas leaks out of its infrastructure in the area.

“Our company technicians worked primarily in Mayflower and Vilonia to secure nearly 100 natural gas leaks caused primarily by uprooted trees,” Greg Strickland, CenterPoint's manager in the area said in a press release. “Today we will continue to perform leak surveys in the area to ensure the safety of our customers and our distribution system.”

Another gas utilities giant, Entergy, also reported major infrastructure damage in the area.

“[The] Mayflower 500kv high voltage yard…no longer [has] any switches or breakers left after tornado's path of destruction,” Entergy wrote on Facebook.

Climate Change Connection? Sort Of

How about climate change? Was this gargantuan tornado tied to climate change in any way, shape or form?

The answer: sort of, and it depends on which scientist you ask.

Former DeSmogBlog contributor Chris Mooney broke down the scientific inquiry on the issue in a piece published on Mother Jones. Mooney concluded that it “would be very premature to say that scientists know precisely what will happen to tornadoes as global warming progresses.”

Yet, that does not necessarily mean the converse is true. That is, Mooney says it is false to say there is no tie between climate change and increasingly severe tornado magnitudes.

“[Scientists] have come up with some interesting new results, which point to potentially alarming changes,” wrote Mooney. “More generally, the upshot of this research is that tornadoes must change as a result of climate change, because the environments in which they form are changing.”

The main climate change connection is via the basic instability of the low-level air that creates the convection and thunderstorms in the first place. Warmer and moister conditions are the key for unstable air. The oceans are warmer because of climate change.

The climate change effect is probably only a 5 to 10 percent effect in terms of the instability and subsequent rainfall, but it translates into up to a 33 percent effect in terms of damage. (It is highly nonlinear, for 10 percent it is 1.1 to the power of three = 1.33.) So there is a chain of events, and climate change mainly affects the first link: the basic buoyancy of the air is increased.

For now, though, debates over whether climate change caused a severe tornado in Arkansas are merely academic for those directly impacted on the ground.

“Everyone is feeling the loss of those who lost loved ones and it's just incomprehensible and hard to wrap your mind around. So for now, all of us are wrapping our arms around each other right now and trying to do whatever we can to help.”

Pictures Speak

DeSmogBlog has compiled the most harrowing photos tracked down via Twitter from citizens and reporters in the area. Sometimes you just have to let the pictures do the talking.

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.